The violent reactions in the Islamic world to the cartoons of Mohammed have been startling, and very, very worrying. Given how extreme Islam appears to be, I'm a little surprised the Denmark newspaper did publish those cartoons, knowing full well that the Islamic faith forbids it, but come on... in this day and age, it's very, very scary to see yet again another example of how religion can have such a strong hold over people who are too fearful to think for themselves and question if the teachings are actually sensible or not.

We've had to reject a number of posts on rotaract from Muslim Rotaractors calling for a boycott on all things Danish too. Seeing how far they have been sending those emails in the to / cc lists, I've been very surprised at just how many Rotarians and Rotaractors, who are supposed to believe in international understanding and peace, have been sending such things out. If the Rotarians and Rotaractors don't understand that such a reaction is not warranted, then what hope do we have for the less educated in those countries who are more open to brainwashing?

A Rotarian alerted me to an interesting article about the Western world's reaction, or lack of one. I am glad that we don't take to the streets and likewise "show our might" by reacting in the same way, but it does make a point that while we may agree that the cartoonists had a right to illustrate what they like, we aren't showing that by remaining silent.

How are we going to achieve tolerance in the Islamic world? Right now it seems like an insurmountable issue.